‘Sportsmouth’ Warner resigns from KILT

Barry Warner (center), shown here on HSE TV in the early 1980s with Bill Worrell, left, and Greg Lucas, has been on the air waves since the 1950s.

Longtime Houston radio sportscaster Barry Warner said today he has resigned from CBS Radio’s KILT (610 AM), bringing to an end, for now, a radio career that began in the 1950s.

Warner, who will be 70 in December, had been off the air since May and underwent surgery in July after suffering a neck injury while playing hockey. He said he was cleared to resume work but informed Ryan McCredden, KILT’s program director, that he would not return.

Warner said his decision was based in part on the decision to remove him in April from KILT’s 6 to 10 p.m. show and reassign him to the 10 p.m.-midnight shift.

“I tried to do the (later show) with an open mind, but it came to a point of diminishing returns,” he said. “I would be in bed at 2 a.m. and up at 6:15 a.m., and I can better use the time for my various interests.”

Warner said he will continue to work with a company he owns called Asian Southwest Media and would be open to a return to radio.

Warner grew up in the Buffalo, N.Y., area and started his radio career there. He covered the Bills in the AFL’s inaugural season of 1960 and moved to Houston in 1966 to work for the AFL just prior to the league’s merger with the NFL.

He remained in Houston as a scout for NFL teams before getting back into radio in 1975 with KLYX (102.1 FM) and KIKK (95.7 FM). After several years with the Denver Nuggets while they were owned by Houston businessman Sidney Schlenker, he returned to Houston and launched the “Sportsmouth” show on KILT (610 AM).

Warner also worked as a sportscaster with the Stevens and Pruett show on KLOL (101.1 FM), at KSEV (700 AM), the Dean and Rog show on KKRW (93.7 FM) and with Houston radio veteran Ralph Cooper at KYOK (1590 AM).

He was hired in 2009 by KILT program director Gavin Spittle to work a Sunday night show with Brad Davies that evolved into a nighttime show with Shaun Bijani. Fred Davis replaced Bijani in 2012, and former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson was hired to replace Warner in April.

Warner said he was grateful to Spittle for the opportunity to return to radio and said the proudest moments of his career involve his work mentoring broadcasters such as Mark Berman at KRIV (Channel 26), David Dalati at KFNC (97.5 FM), Matt Thomas at KSEV and political consultant Chris Begala as they began their careers.

“I’ve got a lot of energy left and no desire to retire from working,” he said. “I can hold my head high.”